Another Day, Another Portal to Another Dimension
Taking the Satyr to Kairen Leaving aside all the things that happened in town the night of the earthquake, I’ll just relate what we do afterwards. Since we only know of one Fey Lord in the area, it seemed like the only thing to do was take the faun creature to him and ask his advice. A party mostly consisting of the people who had been that way before sets out, this time taking the straightest way. We have a very hard time finding the path, even though we’ve been there before. It’s like the forest won’t let us through. But when the lights show up again, the tiny girls say they’ll take us there again, and the paths open right up. At the farmstead, Lord Kairen is fixing to head into battle right then and there. I don’t know how, but he knows something bad is brewing in the same place what we fought in last time, and he invites us along. On the way he tells us a thing or two about the Fey and their Ice Queen and the bad blood there is between him and her. It’s all out of my ken, never having eloped with a queen’s daughter myself, but it sounds a pile of trouble. When we get to the dark temple, it’s hard to see, even with dark vision. Kairen and his son and daughters don’t have enough light in them to make it easier, neither. But there are these glowy things inside, look like moving rune circles, maybe some kind of clocks. Mighty suspicious. And then we all start noticing that we’ve each got more than one shadow, but can’t find exactly the light source that’s casting them… until we find the brand on the faun. He’s marked with a tracking rune of some sort by the Ice Queen. Someone heals him of the brand, which eliminates one light source, but the others are the glowing runes. Now I’m thinking these things are no good to anyone I care about, and want to start smashing, but everyone is looking at me like I’m a fool and telling me no, not now. I hang on to my warhammer for a bit and ready my axe, because the big one on the altar is looking like it’s going to do something. Before we know it, a new portal is opening up into who knows where, and something huge with very long arms is trying to come out.. Lucky for us the portal is too small for it, so it backs out and sends its smaller friends ahead, nasty little hairy buggers with big grins and bloodied aprons, and they start attacking us with razor blades. They’re small, but they’re tough little brutes. The blades they carry are cold-forged steel, which hurt Kairen and his folk more than it should. Kairen is bloody fierce in battle, and we all do what we know how to do. Once the barbers are dead, the portal closes. I ask now is it time for smashing? But smashing does no good. I fling down a vial of acid onto the runes, and that does some damage, but not enough, I dare say. Kairen’s come back to town with us, as I think you’ve seen by now. What he intends to do about our new friend the Ice Queen, I don’t know, but I feel the better having him by our side.